Maggie wrote:

My midwife recommended a
daily salt bath - add half a cup of salt to your bath.

My midwives recommended a slightly more elaborate
bath that might be helpful. You need to buy some herbs,
and you'll want to get them somewhere that sells them in
bulk (some health food stores do). For each bath:

1/2 cup uva ursi
1/2 cup comfrey
1/2 cup shepherd's purse
1/2 head of garlic (roughly chopped, skins okay)
1/2 cup sea salt

Bring a couple quarts of water to a boil in a non-
reactive pan. Take it off the heat and add the
herbs. Steep 20 minutes or so, then strain into
the bath.

Do this once a day until you're feeling better. I
didn't have much perineal trauma, so I'm probably not
the best judge of how well it works, but I talked to
some of their other clients who thought it worked
wonders. (It's great for baby's cord stump, too.)

Best wishes,
Ericka